There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

Three parallel algorithms for classical molecular dynamics are presented. The first assigns each processor a fixed subset of atoms; the second assigns each a fixed subset of inter-atomic forces to compute; the third assigns each a fixed spatial region. The algorithms are suitable for molecular dynamics models which can be difficult to parallelize efficiently—those with short-range forces where the neighbors of each atom change rapidly. They can be implemented on any distributed-memory parallel machine which allows for message-passing of data between independently executing processors. The algorithms are tested on a standard Lennard-Jones benchmark problem for system sizes ranging from 500 to 100,000,000 atoms on several parallel supercomputers--the nCUBE 2, Intel iPSC/860 and Paragon, and Cray T3D. Comparing the results to the fastest reported vectorized Cray Y-MP and C90 algorithm shows that the current generation of parallel machines is competitive with conventional vector supercomputers even for small problems. For large problems, the spatial algorithm achieves parallel efficiencies of 90% and a 1840-node Intel Paragon performs up to 165 faster than a single Cray C9O processor. Trade-offs between the three algorithms and guidelines for adapting them to more complex molecular dynamics simulations are also discussed.

Fast parallel algorithms for short-range molecular dynamics

THE large-scale use of photovoltaic devices for electricity generation is prohibitively expensive at present: generation from existing commercial devices costs about ten times more than conventional methods1. Here we describe a photovoltaic cell, created from low-to medium-purity materials through low-cost processes, which exhibits a commercially realistic energy-conversion efficiency. The device is based on a 10-µm-thick, optically transparent film of titanium dioxide particles a few nanometres in size, coated with a monolayer of a charge-transfer dye to sensitize the film for light harvesting. Because of the high surface area of the semiconductor film and the ideal spectral characteristics of the dye, the device harvests a high proportion of the incident solar energy flux (46%) and shows exceptionally high efficiencies for the conversion of incident photons to electrical current (more than 80%). The overall light-to-electric energy conversion yield is 7.1-7.9% in simulated solar light and 12% in diffuse daylight. The large current densities (greater than 12 mA cm-2) and exceptional stability (sustaining at least five million turnovers without decomposition), as well as the low cost, make practical applications feasible.

A low-cost, high-efficiency solar cell based on dye-sensitized colloidal TiO2 films

抗原变异可使得多种致病微生物易于逃避宿主免疫应答。表达在感染红细胞表面的恶性疟原虫红细胞表面蛋白1（PfPMP1）与感染红细胞、内皮细胞、树突状细胞以及胎盘的单个或多个受体作用，在黏附及免疫逃避中起关键的作用。每个单倍体基因组var基因家族编码约60种成员，通过启动转录不同的var基因变异体为抗原变异提供了分子基础。

疟原虫var基因转换速率变化导致抗原变异[英]／Paul H, Robert P, Christodoulou Z, et al//Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

The civilian, commercial, and defense sectors of most advanced industrialized nations are faced with a tremendous set of environmental problems related to the remediation of hazardous wastes, contaminated groundwaters, and the control of toxic air contaminants. For example, the slow pace of hazardous waste remediation at military installations around the world is causing a serious delay in conversion of many of these facilities to civilian uses. Over the last 10 years problems related to hazardous waste remediation have emerged as a high national and international priority.

Environmental Applications of Semiconductor Photocatalysis

Molecularly Engineered Low-Cost Organic Hole-Transporting Materials for Perovskite Solar Cells: The Substituent Effect on Non-fused Three-Dimensional Systems

This paper describes some important features of interfacial charge transfer reactions in colloidal semiconductor systems. Both electron and hole transfer from a small semiconductor particle to acceptors in solution or adsorbed to the semiconductor are considered. These events are studied by exciting the particle (TiO2 or CdS were used in most cases) with a short laser pulse and applying kinetic spectroscopy to analyze the temporal behavior of transient species. The same techniques can be applied to study electron injection from a photo-excited dye into the conduction band of the semiconductor. Detailed analysis of this process was performed using eosin/colloidal TiO2 as a model system. These studies allow also for an analysis of intraparticle back electron transfer from the conduction band of TiO2 to the adsorbed eosin cation. Furthermore, the trapping of conduction band electrons by noble metal deposits can be analyzed kinetically. Applications of these systems to decompose water by visible and UV light are given.

Photostorage of Solar Energy in Colloidal Semiconductor Systems

Rapid mineralisation of organophosphonates by visible light-enhanced peroxidase action of iron(III) complexes

It is well established that the lack of understanding the crystallization process in two-step sequential deposition has a direct impact on efficiency, stability and reproducibility of perovskite solar cells. Here, we try to understand the solid-solid phase transition occuring during two-step sequential deposition of methylammonium lead iodide and formamidinium lead iodide. Using metadynamics, X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy, we reveal the microscopic details of this process. We find that the formation of perovskite proceeds through intermediate structures and report polymorphs found for methylammonium lead iodide and formamidinium lead iodide. From simulations, we discover a possible crystallization pathway for the highly efficient metastable α-phase of formamidinium lead iodide. Guided by these simulations, we perform experiments that results in the room temperature crystallization of α-formamidinium lead iodide.

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Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Two-Step Process Enable Room-Temperature Synthesis of α-FAPbI3

The electron transfer (ET) from organic dye molecules to semiconductor-colloidal systems is characterized by a special energetic situation with a charge transfer reaction from a system of discrete donor levels to a continuum of acceptor states. If these systems show a strong electronic coupling they are amongst the fastest known ET systems with transfer times of less than 10 fs. In the first part a detailed discussion of the direct observation of an ET reaction with a time constant of about 6 fs will be given, with an accompanying argumentation concerning possible artifacts or other interfering signal contributions. In a second part we will try to give a simple picture for the scenario of such superfast ET reactions and one main focus will be the discussion of electronic dephasing and its consequences for the ET reaction. We show that the actual ET process can be understood as a kind of dispersion process of the initially located electron into the colloid representing a real motion of charge density from the alizarin to the colloid.

/pdf/beyond-vibrationally-mediated-electron-transfer-interfacial-3fjxtd42td.pdf

Michael Grätzel

Papers

Molecularly Engineered Low-Cost Organic Hole-Transporting Materials for Perovskite Solar Cells: The Substituent Effect on Non-fused Three-Dimensional Systems

Photostorage of Solar Energy in Colloidal Semiconductor Systems

Rapid mineralisation of organophosphonates by visible light-enhanced peroxidase action of iron(III) complexes

Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Two-Step Process Enable Room-Temperature Synthesis of α-FAPbI3

Beyond vibrationally mediated electron transfer: interfacial charge injection on a sub-10-fs time scale